文体学 诗歌分析 The Eagle "A Stylistic Analysis of The Eagle by Alfred Tennyson"
2012-03-11 22:04阅读：
He clasps the crag with crooked
hands,
Close to the sun in lonely lands,
ringed with the azure world he
stands.
The wrinkled sea beneath him
crawls;
He watches from his mountain
walls,
and like a thunderbolt he falls.
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A Stylistic Analysis of The Eagle by Alfred
Tennyson The Eagle is a short poem, in which the
poet describes a strong, pride, brave and great eagle. In fact,
it`s to memorize the poet`s
SPAN>，who is died . It`s also a description
of his own life, and an expression of his strong mind. This paper
will start from a stylistic perspective and base on the stylistic
knowledge. We will have an analysis on the feature and the effect
of the stylistics on the sound, words,sentence , imagery and figure
of speech of this poem. And this new perspective aims to let the
reader have a deep understanding of the poem from a new
perspective. The reader will not only have a better impression of
the poem itself, including the features, the meaning and the
aesthetic effect, but also have a profound and true understanding
of the affection that the poet implied in the poem.
A. Sound
1. This poem has two stanzas, six lines and each line
contains 8 syllables.So this poem is very shourt but is also seems
to nbe very neat.
2.In metre, this poem is written in tetrameter. It’s also in
the commonest type of verse foot - iambic foot, after each weak
sound, a stressed sound is exactly followed.
3.The most of the words in this poem are monosyllables,no
more than three syllables,excepet “thunderbolt’,which has three
syllables.So those words are terse, short but forceful. And they
can express the eagle`s handsome and speediness.
4.It has a rhyme. The rhyme scheme of this poem is “aaa,
bbb”. And the rhyming words are “hands,lands ,stand,
crawls,walls,falls”, expressing a stronger feeling or a greater
strength.
5.As for phonetic devices,we can see it consists many kings
of phonetic devices, which picture out the prominent image of the
eagle,and also make the poem full of musical effect and full of
melody.
(1)Alliteration is used many times in this poem, such as
“claps , crag, crooked’in the first line of the first stanza. Those
words show the vitalityand the masculinity of the eagle by the
powerful pronounce /k/. And “lonely , lands”,”
with , world” and “ watches walls” are also belongs to
alliterration.
(2)Assonance also can be seen here, such as “claps, crag,,
hands”, “close , lonely”, “sea, beneath” and “wrinkle , him”. They
provide this poem the beauty of sound.
(3)Consonance is an important phonetic device in this poem,
such as “claps, hands”, “ringed , world”, “wrinkled , crawl” and
“watches, his , walls”.They also give this poem a good coherence in
sound.
(4)There is another special phonetic device in this
poem---Onomatopoeia. In the poem we can see, the short but loud
vowels such as /æ/ ,and the plosive sound,such as / k/ , /p/ , / g/
, / d/, make an impression of tough of the
eagle. Then , with the sound / i :/,/ l/ and / n/ ,it describes the
waves of the ocean.These special phonic sounds make the eagle seems
more powerful and bring the readers the impact of mightiness
hearing feeling.
B. Words
This poem shows the poet`s careful choice of words,
especially to choose words to describe the eagle and his
environment. So that each word can express exactly what needs to be
expressed and suggest every emotional shade that the poem is
calculated to evoke in us.
1. When describe the eagle,words such as “ clasp”,“ Close
to”, “stand” ,’watch” and “thunderbolt” are used. And those words
give us an brave and strong image of the eagle.
2. Then,when the poet describe the environment, words like
“lonely”, “beneath”, “wrinkled” and “crawl” are used. In this way,
the vaste and boundless sky and ocean seem to be nothing in the
eyes of the eagle. So it also serves as a foil to the powerful and
mysterious of the eagle.
3. We also should pay special attention to the pronoun “he”.
It`s a personnification.The poet describes the eagle as a male, and
this refer to the pride and other spirits associated with male. The
subjective case 'he' occurs four times, the objective case 'him'
once and the third person possesive pronoun 'his' once. In short,
those words also show great masculinity upon the
eagle.
4. So when it comes to words of this poem , we can see the
beauty of pattern. And the language of poetry is the vivid
language,which also has rich artistic glamour.Maybe that`s one of
the reasons why Tennyson`s poem is attractive.
5. Lexical repetition can be found in this poem. The word
“he” has been used four times in such a short poem,
within thetwo stanzas. And even the definite article “the” has been
repeted four times,which also give a special sound effect and view
effect.. Such repetition is to heighten the atmosphere of the poem,
to emphasize the meaning of the eagle, and strengthen the coherence
of the poem as a whole .
C. Sentences
1. First of all, let`s pay attention to the title. There is
no sentence at all, except a fragment, I mean a noun phrase “the
eagle”. But this phrase is exactly the shining point, for it just
the right style of this poem.It`s short and brief, just like the
right spirit of the eagle.
2. Then, seen from the whole poem, we find the sentences are
very similar in length,not very long. And there are six lines in
the poem, and we can even say there are six sentences in the poem.
Those six sentences ,the three sentences in the first stanza are
all composed by 7 words, and every sentence in the second stanza is
composed by 6 words,but allsentences in the poem has 8 syllables.So
this poem has a complete and united structure.
3. As for sentence pattern, we can
easily find they are simple sentences without too much sentence
changes. The first line is a full sentence, with a basic sentence
patern SVO. The last sentence of the first
stanza and all the three sentences in the second stanza have the
same sentence pattern SV. Just the second sentence of the first
stanze has a little change. In my view, it should be SVP, but in
order to get the coherence in the whole poem, the poet
ellipsises the subject “he” and the predictive link verb
“is”.
4. What`s more, syntactical Repetition is used too. It has
repeted the same structure in the third and the sixth sentences.
“He stands” and “he falls”, these two short sentences are both at
the end of each stanza. And these two sentences may be called
periodic sentence, which give more emphasis the hero “he” ,
produce a great momentum, and its emotional
appeal to the full .
D.Figure of speech
1.Personification is one of the most important fatures in
this poem.In the whole poem, the eagle is written like an brave
man.The poet uses “he” refering to the eagle and describing eagle’s
talons as 'hands', thus make the eagle full of human emotions and
spirits.
2.Overstatement also is used here. In the second line, “close
to the sun” is an exanple of exaggeration. So it can emphasis the
power of the eagle and express the author`s or his friend`s
insistence of pursuing truth and beauty.
3.Similer is also here.For example,in the last sentence of
the poem,“like a thunderbolt”is both a similer and overstatement at
the same time. And from such a powerful word, we can find the high
tide of the poem and the emotion of the poet. So, in this way, the
special rhytorical effect can be expressed.
4.Pun may be uesd here ,too. In the last but one line, we can
see “like a thunderbolt he falls”.In this sentence, “falls ”can be
understood as the fall of the eagle, maybe it`s too tired ,and it
want to fall down to have a short rest,or it will fall down to
death. But also,it can be understood as the fall of his friend,
which just died at the golden age of his life and will never
reback.. So, that`s the very wonders of portic
language.
E. Imagery
Imagery is one important part of a poem, and they convey much
more than what the words appear to mean .By those words, the poet
expresses his feeling and thought in a more romantic way or a more
suitable way.
And many images are used here, such as the eagle, the sun,
the azure wolrd, the sea, the mountain and the
thuderbolt. Of course, the eagle is the main subject in this poem,
and it`s presented as being strong and tough, proud and majestic,
sharpeyed, alert, and quick movement..
Then, the other images in this poem also have their special
usage. Just as we have mentioned above, all the images work
together to convey the eagle’s prominent characters.
After the whole analysis of the poem in stylistic way, we may
find there are so many perfect points in this little poem.And the
eagle`s characters , such as aggressiveness, powerfulness and
unyieldingness, are all revealed fully.To analysis this poem
deeper, we also could find the deep sorrow in Tennyson`s heart for
his lost friend and his vivid express of his own spirit
of braveness, aggressiveness and
violence.
